A Full Length, Two-Act Play
Good Blood And High Standards
By G. L. Horton
copyright © 1990,
2004
Geralyn Horton
CHARACTERS
JOHN WELLS GRANTHAM, fifty-ish.
TORRIE GRANTHAM, late 20's, John's second wife
ISABELLA WELLS GRANTHAM, 80, John's mother
LIZ GRANTHAM WESTERVELDT, fifty-ish, John's sister
The play takes place in the present, in the conservatory of the
old Grantham mansion in western Massachusetts, between afternoon
and midnight of a day in the early fall. The room is Victorian
in feeling, with mostly wrought iron and wicker furniture. There
are floor plants, shelf plants, and hanging plants: but the days
when serious gardening was practiced in this room are long gone.
The surviving flora are rather scraggly specimens of the hardiest
common houseplants.
SYNOPSIS
GOOD BLOOD AND HIGH STANDARDS examines how an old-money Massachusetts
family embodies traditional Yankee values-- and their internal
contradictions. ISABELLA's two children, LIZ and JOHN, have tried
to resist, actively or passively, all their family's expectations.
Now it looks as if there will be a royal row over which of the
children of the 21st century generation -- if any-- will be the
heir to all that the Wells-Granthams have held dear.
ACT ONE, SCENE 1
TORRIE GRANTHAM, a pretty woman in her late 20's with a slight
Appalachian lilt to her voice, is seated on a wicker divan in
the Grantham House conservatory, nursing her month-old baby. JOHN
GRANTHAM, 50's, dressed for golf and with a kind of deliberate
blurry quality to his features and movement, is cuddled up against
TORRIE's shoulder, as if he were a child, too. ISABELLA WELLS
GRANTHAM, JOHN's octogenarian mother, can be heard as she comes
to the door of the conservatory, her walking stick tapping on
the parquet outside. JOHN, hearing her approach, looks panicked
and mouths "Not yet". TORRIE nods and signals silence--
they can't be seen unless ISABELLA comes into the room. John's
mother pauses at the door, says "John?" and then her
steps are heard retreating.
JOHN (breathing again)
Torrie-- if it gets worse, we can leave, can't we? Promise? If
I say leave, we leave.
TORRIE
Of course. But you mustn't think that way. We're here for Baby
John.
JOHN
He might be better off without all this.
TORRIE
This is yours. Your great-great grandfather built it just for
you. And you've been doing just fine.
JOHN
It's just an act She'll see through it. They always did.
TORRIE
Your parents, you mean?
JOHN
All of them! My parents, their friends, teachers, the servants,--
even the other kids, the cousins and whatnot. All checking up,
checking us out. On the surface, Lizzy was the brat. But underneath--
TORRIE
Oh, no. You were perfect, just like this little baby of ours.
Look at his tiny perfect nails! Your family owed you love and
protection. They still owe you --
JOHN
They're dead, most of them. Mother's still here, immortal and
infallible. But Mother's just a cranky old snob. Why am I back
in it? A prisoner of war!
TORRIE
You've never worked it out.
JOHN
This is just a house, walls and windows. But I can hardly breathe.
TORRIE
Lean back, darling. I'll breathe with you. In, out. If I thought
it was right, I'd go in a minute. Forget about Junior's Christening.
JOHN
Then let's go. Now.
TORRIE
But if you just give up without making at least a try to give
our child what he deserves, you'll never forgive yourself. If
it doesn't work, and instead of apologizing she throws us out--
JOHN
I know her. She'll never bend in front of an audience, not Queen
Isabella.
TORRIE
Either way, we'll still have us. I love you--.
JOHN
More than you love the house? More than my mother? You seem to
be crazy about her.
TORRIE
Just to look at. She's beautiful!
JOHN
With a capital B. And perfect, with a capital P.
TORRIE
In Clothes with a capital C.
JOHN
Though she's a witch with a capital B.
TORRIE
My mother was an old hag at half her age. Wore out and used up.
JOHN
An old hag, maybe, but not an old witch.
TORRIE
She's your mother, and deep down she loves you. If she could do
you -right without admitting she was wrong--,
JOHN
That's very deep down.
TORRIE
You're like her, you know. The way you move your hands, or tip
your head when you're listening....
JOHN
She's got her spell on you, hasn't she? Always, I'd bring my friends
here, and they'd say, what a great lady your mother is! How can
you say those awful things about her?.
TORRIE
You saw how she covered up for me last night, turned the conversation.
I'd have been embarrassed--
JOHN
Trust Mother. Perfect hostess, perfect hypocrite.
TORRIE
Flowers in the wintertime, candle light, soft voices. I want this,
Johnny. I never want to hear another scream.
JOHN
My mother doesn't recognize your strength, and she'd be shocked
by the way you came to it. She's react with contempt.
TORRIE
Maybe so, but while I'm your wife she's not going to let anybody
else show contempt. She'll enforce what's due to a Grantham.
JOHN
Do-do-dootelly! She scarcely noticed me until I was old enough
to do my duty and do her credit.
TORRIE
Were you all raised like that? You Brahmins?
JOHN
I don't know. Kids I knew played the same sports, took piano or
violin, wore the same clothes, had the same stuff at birthday
parties.[ All of us left with the servants for months at a time.
TORRIE
Amazing the things people think are more important than their
children.
JOHN
Your mother had some excuse, with seven--
TORRIE
Seven's no excuse.
JOHN
I used to thank God Mother wasn't around. I thought if she knew,
she'd --
TORRIE
What? Kill you?
JOHN
Not with her own hands. Send me away. To people who would kill
me, or put me in jail--
TORRIE
When they did send you away to school, you were smart and popular
--
JOHN
For a while.
TORRIE
Well, I passed for normal, too, the first couple years of high
school.
JOHN
It's occurred to me that the rich and the poor are in some ways
more like each other than either of us are like the middles.
TORRIE
How do you mean?
JOHN
Like leaving kids on their own--
TORRIE
The middles do it, too, now. Mothers working full time, leave
their babies with illegal immigrants from God-knows-where--
JOHN
Molly was probably illegal, and she loved us.
TORRIE
Molly?
JOHN
I've told you about Molly. Our nursemaid? Mother sent her away.
TORRIE
Because Molly loved you.
JOHN
Lizzy said Mother didn't ever want us to have love: not hers,
or Molly's, or each other's.
TORRIE
That was very clever of Lizzy. At how old?
JOHN
Seven, maybe. Eight.
TORRIE
A very clever little girl. Extraordinary.
JOHN
Can't we be ordinary? Darling? Isn't that what we planned? You
get breakfast, I go to a boring office, come home and play with
the kid. Junior's going to scream sometimes, Torrie,
TORRIE
What do you mean?
JOHN
You said you never wanted to hear a scream.
TORRIE
Babies don't scream. They cry, to communicate.
JOHN
He'll make demands, he'll make messes. I'll clean them up, I'll
give him a hug, we'll watch TV together, watch him roller skate,
maybe buy one of those camper things--.
TORRIE
An RV.
JOHN
An RV.
TORRIE
Drive on down through Appalachia, stop at my cousins' in Bear
Fork and have a few beers? We ought to do better than that, John.
JOHN
This isn't better than that.
TORRIE
We'll make it better. We made a life for ourselves at Greycliffe.
JOHN
Somehow we did. You did--
TORRIE
Compared to that, this place should be easy. You've made the first
steps, the ones that are hardest. I'm so proud of you, and of
myself, too-- (embraces him)
JOHN (kisses TORRIE.)
The Comeback Kid --
TORRIE
You taste like cough drops. You haven't been drinking?
JOHN
Not today. Last night.
TORRIE
I saw you turn them all down last night, so how were you drinking?
JOHN
A brandy glass left on the hall table. I just-- but I stopped
myself.
Even before it hit, I went right up to bed.
TORRIE
Thank God for that! But--
JOHN
What'd you expect? I warned you! I can't deal with this house--
TORRIE
Yes, you can. Without stealing somebody's abandoned drink--
JOHN
I don't steal! Heir of the dog. Grantham booze is my booze.
TORRIE
Then act that way! Don't be a sneak.
JOHN
Torrie, don't.... It feels as if you've changed sides, thrown
in with Mother.
TORRIE
I'm on your side. Always.
JOHN
We should leave, right now.
TORRIE
Before the Christening?
JOHN
Before they break us.
TORRIE
This is your house, you just said so! These people tonight, the
ones who'll be coming-- they're your kind, you can handle them.
Without even thinking about it.
JOHN
The only way to stop thinking is to start drinking. Why couldn't
the Christening have been today? We'd be on our way home, home
free. It's the build up that gets to me, Torrie. Worse than going
cold turkey.
TORRIE
Tell me about the build up...
JOHN
When they were coming home. Mother and Dad. They'd notify the
servants, of course. Weeks ahead, because they never came alone
but with important guests, and the servants needed time to get
ready. To get Lizzy and me ready, too. While our parents were
away they let us run wild.
TORRIE
I know.
JOHN
Oh, we loved running wild. The idea that nobody knew or cared
was horrible and lonesome: but it was thrilling, too. Lying, and
backing each other up---. There was one period when we had weeks
of fabricated sickness, forged notes from a made-up governess.
Liz would even do her on the telephone in an English accent, the
headmaster was totally taken in--
TORRIE
Just as you were. Not your fault.
JOHN
But as the day of reckoning grew closer, the servants panicked.
They tried to whip us into shape, help us pass. But of course
we never could. The great day 'd arrive, and Liz and I'd be dressed
up and brushed and trying to mind our manners -- just like now.
TORRIE
It doesn't have to be. Everything's changed.
JOHN
Right.
TORRIE
You're not that poor little boy any more.
JOHN
Poor little rich boy.
TORRIE
Little. That's the important part. You were little, they were
big. How could it be your fault?
JOHN
Right.
TORRIE
You deserve better.
JOHN
It's not a matter of deserving, Torrie, it's--
TORRIE
Yes. Yes, it is. You deserve every advantage that your family
has. Everything that was passed on to them by their parents. That's
how it's supposed to work.
JOHN
That makes sense, I guess---. But the pressure of this place is--
ISABELLA (voice from outside the room)
John? (silence) John, is that you?
TORRIE (the baby is nursing once again)
We're in here, Mother Grantham. Baby John and big John were having
a nap, but they're awake now.
ISABELLA
John said he was going upstairs.
TORRIE
To change. John said he was going up to change.
ISABELLA
I'm too old to go wandering from room to room. Playing hide and
seek. I guessed you'd make a beeline for your old playroom, but
when you didn't answer---
JOHN (points to golf equipment)
Look. I found the shoes, and even my old set of golf clubs --
there. Those must go back to college.
ISABELLA (examines clubs)
The leather's gone.
JOHN
It was going thirty years ago. So was I, for that matter. Still,
I'll look rather nifty, don't you think?
TORRIE (laughing)
Nifty!?
JOHN (holding up a cap)
Even spiffy! Look what was in the pocket.
TORRIE
Whatever is that?
JOHN
Tell the young lady, mother.
ISABELLA
That's a tam-o'-shanter.
JOHN
A genuine old school Jingo tam-o'-shanter. Like it?
ISABELLA
John's fraternity -- which was also my father's fraternity --
awarded a tam-o'-shanter to the Clan Chief every year. We were
very proud. For leadership, athletic accomplishments--
JOHN
Willingness to stand all the brothers to drinks--.
TORRIE
I love it.
JOHN
Want to try it on?
TORRIE
I love it on YOU! (She holds out her hand to him, and JOHN
kisses it.)
ISABELLA (displeased)
I'll wait in the library until you're through-- feeding. John?
TORRIE
Oh, little Jonnykins will just gobble on forever. Won't you, you
greedy thing? But stay. Piggy-John and I like company --- don't
we, precious?
JOHN
That light, Torrie looks like a Raphael Madonna, don't you think,
Mother?
TORRIE
Add a couple of halos and we're the Holy Family-- aren't we, piggy-sweet?
ISABELLA
They never have quite that expression with a bottle, do they?
"The milk from contented cows"..
JOHN
Uncalled for, Mother.
TORRIE
Mother Grantham doesn't mean to hurt my feelings, darling.
ISABELLA
It's an advertisement they used to have, on the radio--
JOHN
I know where it comes from. You used to say that about Molly.
ISABELLA
That's how we thought, we bright young things. No one in my generation
would have dreamed of breast feeding. It was barbaric.
TORRIE
Breast feeding's the very best. Not just nutrition. It communicates
a sense of security.
JOHN
You didn't even hold the bottle, did you, mother? You had a Nanny.
ISABELLA
I held it. Sometimes.
JOHN
Lizzy used to badger Mom to get rid of her stock in Nestle's.
Save the African babies.
TORRIE
Must have been back before AIDS.
ISABELLA
One of Elizabeth's Cause of the Month things. My generation thought
that a well bred woman should distance herself from such vulgarities.
JOHN
The really well bred don't breed at all.
ISABELLA
Nonsense. My great grandmother had a dozen children. But she employed
a wet nurse.
TORRIE
I plan on two or three more, Mother Grantham. I'm young and healthy.
JOHN
I'm not.
TORRIE (pats JOHN's hand.)
You're doing fine, darling.
JOHN
I've got to be going. I'm picking up Buddy on the way.
ISABELLA
Buddy?
JOHN
Alan Crowther. You remember-- he goes back almost as far as these
clubs.
ISABELLA
He was at Groton with you.
JOHN
Right. Well.. Do you need anything from the car, sweetheart?
TORRIE
John-John's changing pad, and the.... I'll get it, if you'll hold
him.
JOHN
I can get it.
TORRIE
You'd never find it-- It's easier for me. And I need the exercise.
JOHN
Sure you don't want to come with me? You can take a dip in the
pool--
TORRIE
Don't you worry about me, sweet-thing! Hold out your arms.
JOHN
I don't want to wake him.
TORRIE (passes the baby to JOHN)
He's out for a couple of hours, now.
ISABELLA
Should he hold him like that?
TORRIE
That's fine, John's doing fine. But if you'd rather...
ISABELLA
No, thank you. I'd be afraid I'd drop him.
TORRIE
I won't be a minute. (exits)
JOHN
You're sure you don't want to hold him?
ISABELLA
In my day we didn't allow infants to nurse themselves to sleep.
Feeding was done on a schedule. And sleep was done in a crib.
(pause) Since when have you been interested in golf?
JOHN
I played in college.
ISABELLA
Thirty years ago!
JOHN
My doctor says I should get regular exercise.
ISABELLA
Keeping up with a young wife's not enough for you?
JOHN
Golf's good for business.
ISABELLA
You call what you do "business"?
JOHN
For making contacts, then. For getting into business.
ISABELLA
Your game was tennis.
JOHN
I'm not up to tennis these days. I'm not up to one of your interrogations
either, Mother.
ISABELLA
Elizabeth will be very disappointed to find you've gone off golfing,
when she arrives.
JOHN
Lizzy's coming?
ISABELLA
Of course she's coming. She's your sister. When you were little
you were so close people thought that you must be twins.
JOHN
That was when we were little.
ISABELLA
Have you quarreled?
JOHN
Not really. Have you?
ISABELLA
Of course! We'll quarrel this time, too-- that's probably why
she's late. I swear, sometimes I think your sister arranges her
entire life just to raise my blood pressure.
JOHN
I hope you'll stay calm, Mother. I don't deal well with ---
ISABELLA
With what?
JOHN
I need peaceful surroundings.
ISABELLA
Is that why your wife treats you like a child?
JOHN
No interrogations, Mother. Please.
ISABELLA
I think........ (pause)
TORRIE (enters, to John)
Wasn't that quick? Put Jonnykins right in here. (JOHN puts
the baby in its basket) Now give us a kiss, and then just
you leave Mother Grantham and me to our girl talk.
JOHN
Right. (kisses TORRIE's cheek) Mother. (waves to his
mother, exits)
ISABELLA
You'll be back in time for dinner, won't you, John? (he has
gone.) He barely let me look at him. "No interrogations",
he says. I don't understand why he has to spend his afternoon
chasing a golf ball.
TORRIE
He has a date with an old friend. Friends and exercise are good
for him.
ISABELLA
John's game was tennis.
TORRIE
He tried tennis. He's not up to it.
ISABELLA
That's what he said. So what is he "up to"? When I came
to see you two in Philadelphia last year, John disappeared the
second day. Off on a business trip, you said. Then I find John
doesn't really have a job--
TORRIE
He works. He goes in every day. How often did he get up and go
to work regular those years he was married to Cynthia? Don't push
it, Mother Grantham. Let John play his game of golf, do the country
club thing with that Buddy he went to school with, and sip on
a glass of tonic water. You'll see. We'll all be one big happy
family by the Christening tomorrow.
ISABELLA
Nine years. It's been nine years since both my children were last
at home.
TORRIE
Both? Lizzy's coming?
ISABELLA
I expected her to be here hours ago. Come for brunch, I said.
But she's late. Whatever that may mean.
TORRIE
You should have warned me!
ISABELLA
Warned you? About John's sister?
TORRIE
You said don't worry-- she'll refuse the invitation.
ISABELLA
Elizabeth and I aren't speaking more often than not. But she and
John were always so close.
TORRIE
Too close! Do you realize it's a miracle that John's under this
roof?
ISABELLA
Well, it's none too soon. I'm not going to live forever.
TORRIE
Really, Mother Grantham--
ISABELLA
Torrie, please. I would prefer that you not call me that.
TORRIE
Oh? It's meant to be respectful.
ISABELLA
It would be, if I were a Catholic abbess. I called my mother in
law Mrs. Grantham.
TORRIE
If that's what you prefer--
ISABELLA
Times change. You may call me Isabella.
TORRIE
Isabella. (the baby stirs) I think he's dreaming. (TORRIE
adjusts her blouse) There, there, precious, Mommy's here.
ISABELLA
You could take him upstairs.
TORRIE
We'll just sit here, if that's all right. Breast feeding makes
us peaceful.
ISABELLA
He certainly looks peaceful. Not a state I much associate with
children.
TORRIE
As soon as John Jr. can talk, you'll be Grandma... unless you
don't care for that either!
ISABELLA
It would be splendid, to hear my own blood say "Grandma".
But I don't expect to live that long.
TORRIE
Why, Isabella! You'll be going strong at 110, out there for his
high school graduation.
ISABELLA
The doctor who got me to quit smoking only promised me 90.
TORRIE
Well, that's a while yet, isn't it? You hold the fort here, Junior
and I can come for visits, and one of these days Big John might
see his way clear to move out of Philadelphia-
ISABELLA
Big John?
TORRIE
That's what I call him. It's kind of a joke.
ISABELLA
Is John putting on weight again?
TORRIE
Well, maybe a touch. We've been doing low carb, it'll come off.
ISABELLA
Seeing him that time in the hospital, so gross.... I was almost
relieved when the doctor told me I shouldn't visit.
TORRIE
That was his medication. Some people, it blows them right up.
ISABELLA
But now he doesn't need it?
TORRIE
Just vitamins and my TLC. I keep telling John he should model
himself on you: you look twenty years younger-- !
ISABELLA
Younger than what? Methuselah?
TORRIE
If John's got the family stamina, we could have 40, 50 years together.
ISABELLA
I wouldn't count on it. We're good stock, but it's the women who
last.
TORRIE
But not your mother?
ISABELLA
No, she died when I was six.
TORRIE
Still, there's no reason you and John can't just go on and on.
ISABELLA
Three flights of stairs: that's three reasons right there. Thirty-one
rooms, some of them not dusted in months. It wears on me, watching
all this decay. If you and John want to live here-?
TORRIE
Well, that depends. It may take time--
ISABELLA
I don't have time. I've had an offer, a good offer.
TORRIE
You'd let the house go?
ISABELLA
My children have chosen what they call a "different lifestyle".
TORRIE
John says you were a fabulous hostess. If you weren't in new York
or off in Europe, you were hosting a bunch of celebrities, here.
ISABELLA
"Hosting"! There's no such verb. And they weren't celebrities,
but artists. Alas that my son has never been able to tell the
difference.
TORRIE
Still, John's used to important people. I noticed that right off,
at Greycliffe. He deserves a position where he»'s dealing
with his own kind. If you could arrange it --
ISABELLA
If I arrange something, my children seem to do the opposite.
TORRIE
It'd do him a world of good.
ISABELLA
There might be a place for him with his cousin Elliot, or at Wright
and Wards'. But if he has a relapse?
TORRIE
He won't! Just do like you did for your artists. Back him.
ISABELLA
That wasn't the point! Oh, I suppose being seen here might have
given impetus to a career. But what I really had to offer my artists
was »an audience. One with standards, with taste.
TORRIE
I know what you mean.
ISABELLA
Do you? My father called it "being a trustee".
TORRIE
Right! That's what John should be! I've read all about that: family
foundations, where the fortune's sheltered and the heirs get to
manage it. Openings and charity benefits and parties and all.
A lady in Cleveland charged hers for her daughter's wedding!
ISABELLA
How de Medici of her.
TORRIE
The hospital wants John, already! Some nerve, isn't it? Asking
a man to head up a fund drive, when three years ago they wouldn't
even let him keep his own belt and necktie!
ISABELLA
I didn't meant anything so literal.
TORRIE
Explain it to me, then. John says you held court here, patronizing
art like some olden-day queen.
ISABELLA
That wasn't--well! (laughs) Perhaps it was: Queen Isabella.
Or Eleanor of Aquitaine, muse of the troubadours. But what I was
taught, what my father believed, is that all of what are called
advantages-- wealth, education, leisure-- these are given to us
so that we may act as stewards. To seek out and encourage the
best! That's our family motto: Diuturnum Retinemus. "We hold
what endures".
TORRIE
Carved into the mantelpiece.
ISABELLA
Yes. This house was built to hold heirlooms-- and giants. Donyanhi
sat at my splendid piano and played for the first time a concerto
which will endure, long after all that atonal nonsense is forgotten.
Amelia Hoffman --John's Godmother? Her portrait's in the music
room. Very thin, with snow white braids and Teutonic bones.
TORRIE
I can't recall...
ISABELLA
When she made her American debut as child prodigy, the critics
were in raptures. Then came the war; and the German repertoire
was out. Her looks, her name.. she married a Jew who owned three
department stores, and retired from concertizing. But she would
come here, and she would play for us.
TORRIE
My sister's husband, Jackson, the one who's a doctor? -- plays
the oboe. I'm not sure how good he is --
ISABELLA
At least you aspire. Elizabeth goes in for Folk Arts.
TORRIE
You mean like in the hills? Quilting and stuff?
ISABELLA
Yes, that "stuff". Soft sculpture she calls it; puppetry,
auto harp, three chords and a spoon. She surrounds her half-breed
daughter with international junk, and urges her: be creative!
TORRIE
There was a lady like that up in Bear Fork. My Pa said this lady,
this Miss Treen, we shouldn't take piano from her, because she
was stuck on herself. But Ma-- my mother said it wasn't charity;
the lady liked to teach.
ISABELLA
You were fortunate. I studied piano under a great artist, but
I don't believe he liked to teach.
TORRIE
She didn't like teaching me! She favored Billy Jack Furlong, whose
family was even poorer that mine. She said Billy Jack had genius.
ISABELLA
Perhaps he did. Genius, intelligence, can spring up anywhere.
But they only flourish where there is a refined audience.
TORRIE
I bet you play like a real professional--
ISABELLA
I gave it up. I could never meet my own standards. Except.. perhaps
as a conductor. I believe I might have been a fine conductor....
(ISABELLA listens, goes toward the hall)
TORRIE
I bet you-- What is it?
ISABELLA
I believe it's Elizabeth. In the nick.
TORRIE
Lizzy? Please! Keep her away from John. Until he's ready.
ISABELLA
Ready for what?
TORRIE
I know, it's not my place to-- (ISABELLA signals her to be
quiet with a Shh!)
LIZ (voice off)
Mother?
ISABELLA (at door)
In here, Elizabeth. In here. (LIZ enters, stands at door. She
is wearing paint spattered overalls with a bandanna over her hair.
ISABELLA returns to her chair. TORRIE is looking out the window)
Better late than never, I suppose.
LIZ
I arranged to have let the movers let in, but I'm only half packed.
Everything's gone wrong.
ISABELLA
Of course it has! At least you're consistent. However, I think
that even after --what, nearly three years? -- I could have waited
another quarter of an hour for you to dress. Will you walk in,
please? I'm not holding a conversation with someone in the doorway,
not at my age.
LIZ
Where's the guest of honor? The chip off the old block?
TORRIE
Sleeping.
ISABELLA
Elizabeth. What IS that you're wearing?
LIZ
I told you, I was packing the attic, and then I had trouble with
the car.
ISABELLA
This is what, then? Your mechanic's outfit?
LIZ
Would you prefer that I leave? It's only a three hour drive. Shall
I drive back to Boston? Come tomorrow at noon, dressed for the
Christening?
ISABELLA
Stay, not now that you're here. No! Don't sit down-- not on silk!
LIZ
Sorry. These are dry paint stains, you know. They won't rub off.
ISABELLA
I see what looks like some kind of grease spot.
LIZ
Motor oil. I had to keep adding it. Never mind. I'll go change.
(exits)
ISABELLA
She does these things to drive me mad! I try telling myself that
it's the times. Styles out of comic books, mass bad taste--. (glares
at TORRIE)
TORRIE
You mean this? I got it so it'd be easy to breast-feed. I had
some doubts.
ISABELLA
When you have doubts, please! Don't.
TORRIE
I'll get it fight, Mother Gra---Isabella. It can't be harder than
chemistry.
ISABELLA
John's first wife did "experimental" film making. Films
which would be classed as pornography if they weren't so boring.
TORRIE
At Greycliffe they didn't even have "R"' movies. We
saw "Cinderella" about a dozen times.
ISABELLA (laughing)
My God!
TORRIE
Don't you make fun of us! Three years ago I didn't know about
antiques-- why would I? But I learn fast. Maybe because my Ma
clerked in Dempster's, I got styles down easy. Anyways, I bet
I could guess the appraisal on most anything in the house.
ISABELLA (chuckles)
Could you? That would be most illuminating.
TORRIE
I watch Antiques Roadshow.
ISABELLA
There is an appraisal list. For the insurance. Suppose we had
a contest, like on television. What you guess, you get.
TORRIE
You mean verses Lizzy?
ISABELLA
Elizabeth may not give a hoot about her heritage, but oh, does
she hate to be outsmarted.
TORRIE
If she doesn't appreciate--
ISABELLA
Appreciate? From the day she began to crawl, she was crashing
into things; spilling things, breaking things. Things that would
be hers! In our family, daughters get the furniture. Tools of
a woman's trade.
TORRIE
But Lizzy never cared.
ISABELLA
Yes. Well. The list's in the safe. When shall we start?
TORRIE
You're serious?
ISABELLA
If my daughter breaks tradition, why shouldn't I?
LIZ (entering)
Now what am I accused of?
TORRIE
So quick!
ISABELLA
When it comes to grooming, Elizabeth is a minimalist.
TORRIE
What my Ma'd call "a lick and a promise".
LIZ
I'll shower before I dress for dinner.
ISABELLA
At least she no longer looks dangerous.
TORRIE
Are we dressing for dinner?
ISABELLA
Not exactly dressing, but--
LIZ
Better than this.
TORRIE
Better than this, too, then. Should I change now?
ISABELLA
After our adventure.
LIZ
Adventure?
ISABELLA
Couldn't you have taken your car round to the back, Elizabeth?
The neighbors are likely to call the police.
LIZ
I thought I was pushing my luck to get it as far as the driveway.
TORRIE
That jalopy looks like it's made its last trip.
LIZ
I certainly hope not. Once I'm moved I should be able to manage
without a car, but while I'm in the middle of it --
TORRIE
Dr. George stuck you with that hunk of junk? How much did you
pay your lawyer?
LIZ
Please, don't dump on George. I think of my marriage as a kind
of sheltered workshop, where I was recovered from all this.
TORRIE
Your mother is about to take me to inspect "all this".
LIZ
The grand tour? From conservatory to lavatory?
TORRIE (to ISABELLA)
Conservatory? Where's that?
LIZ
Right here. You're in it.
TORRIE
This room, this...?
ISABELLA
Conservatory.
TORRIE
I thought a conservatory was a music room.
ISABELLA
No, a music SCHOOL. A school for music, or a room for plants.
Silly idea. Flowers in vases, yes. Plants belong outside, their
humidity ruins furniture. Which is why we live with this--. (waves
at room)
TORRIE
That handsome desk?
ISABELLA
Elizabeth's plaything, really. The children battered it so I had
it moved out here of sight. I never used this room, I thought
of it as "outside".
TORRIE
John told me.
ISABELLA
When they were little Elizabeth and John used to cover the desk
with a quilt and play house. Little cottage in the woods.
LIZ
Or a gypsy camp.
ISABELLA
Later Elizabeth used it to do her homework.
LIZ
To write letters.
ISABELLA
Though she seldom sent any. What a struggle to get her to compose
thank-yous. I suppose she wrote complaints to God.
LIZ
I kept my complaints for my diary.
ISABELLA
Oh yes. Elizabeth's secret diary. Locked, and locked in the drawer.
Those scratches are where John tried to pry it open with a screwdriver.
TORRIE (tries drawer)
It's locked now. (LIZ is startled, moves towards the drawer)
ISABELLA
She wore the key on a chain around her neck. Can you imagine?
TORRIE
You let her do that?
LIZ
No vigilance is perfect. Ninety-nine out of every hundred items
in this house we kids were forbidden on pain of death. Rules enforced
by a round-the-clock surveillance team of servants and snitches.
TORRIE
But anything in this space you could ruin? No matter how valuable?
ISABELLA
That desk isn't valuable, Torrie. It's a reproduction. American,
not French; made in the fifties.
TORRIE
No older than John is? But the joining is so...
LIZ
The 1850's, Torrie.
ISABELLA
A revival piece, my dear. Definitely not museum quality. For Elizabeth
it has sentimental value, as my childhood piano does for me. I've
kept that tinny old thing, though no one who has tried the Steinway
would ever want to play on it.
TORRIE
That monster Steinway! It takes up a whole room.
ISABELLA
It was built for giants.
LIZ
Or gods. Of the silver screen variety.
TORRIE
Movie stars, John says.
LIZ
Well, Eric Brigman.
ISABELLA
Forgotten now, but oh so handsome. Eric played the juvenile in
musical comedies, but he was a real actor, and I staged the Scottish
Play for him, here. Cecil did the costumes. Could they still be
in the attic?
TORRIE
I'd love to see them.
LIZ
Didn't you give them to a museum?
LISABELLA
I meant to.
LIZ
Waiting for the maximum tax deduction?
ISABELLA
We'd better get on with our tour, Torrie. How long will the baby
sleep?
TORRIE (goes to the basket, adjusts blanket)
At least another hour.
LIZ (going to look at the baby)
He's been right here? The baby?
TORRIE
John-john's real quiet when he's sleeping. Like a perfect angel.
LIZ
John Wells Grantham III?
TORRIE
You haven't seen him yet, have you?
LIZ
Just the pictures.
ISABELLA (a new thought)
Have you two even met?
LIZ
Only on the telephone.
TORRIE (pulls back blanket to show baby)
He's grown. Careful! We don't want him to spoil our house tour.
ISABELLA (inspecting)
The pictures don't really do him justice. He has the Wells nose.
LIZ
Poor little thing!
TORRIE
It is a nose and a half, isn't it? Still, I think it'll look distinguished.
ISABELLA
My father always said a large nose is a sign of character.
LIZ
He would have said that. Given the size of his.
TORRIE
Well, Lizzy? Aren't you going to say something nice about your
nephew?
LIZ
Nice, yes. Healthy, good-looking. But I was already impressed.
My brother's become a photographic pro.
TORRIE
He ought to be, what he spent on the cameras! He takes good pictures,
though.
ISABELLA
Too bad that the best one of the baby's not your best.
TORRIE
I look a fright! I want to frame that one, but cut me out.
LIZ
You look beautiful in all of them, Torrie. Motherhood agrees with
you.
TORRIE
I'd like to have a dozen. Bearing children is heaven.
LIZ
Maybe I should give a try.
TORRIE
Aren't you through the change?
LIZ
Medical science works miracles. That woman in Italy was 62. I'm
making a fresh start. An apartment, classes at college, a new
job. Why not a baby?
ISABELLA
Out of wedlock?
LIZ
We don't need wedlock, mother. Not since everybody's got a key.
ISABELLA
Torrie, why don't you put the baby's basket' in the kitchen? You
can get us each an apron, and ask Rita to keep an eye on him.
I'll meet you outside the Rose Room, for our tour.
TORRIE
Excellent! (exits with baby basket, LIZ starts to follow)
ISABELLA (to LIZ)
Elizabeth! Where are you going?
LIZ
To move the car. Wasn't that what you ordered?
ISABELLA
I want to talk to you first. You did bring a decent dress?
LIZ
Two. A silk suit, and the Chanel you bought me. I couldn't wear
either in the car: the upholstery's ripped, and a spring sticks
out like a claw.
ISABELLA
You brought the camel-colored Chanel?
LIZ
I brought the one I have left. The blue.
ISABELLA
You threw the other away?
LIZ
I wore it out, actually. I never said it wasn't flattering. I
just couldn't see spending enough to feed an Ethiopian tribe.
ISABELLA
As long as you won't embarrass your family. Visually or verbally.
LIZ
Oh, Kim doesn't embarrass easily.
ISABELLA
I meant your brother, in front of some rather important guests.
LIZ
That kind of dinner? How ambitious, mother! How many?
ISABELLA
Twenty-two.
LIZ
Pulling out all the table leaves! I'm rather hurt. You never spread
the groaning board for Kim.
ISABELLA
How is Kim?
LIZ
She's fine. Thanks to your money, she's having a ball at tennis
camp.
ISABELLA
Good. Though I'd have preferred to hear it from her.
LIZ
She's written to thank you, hasn't she? She said she did.
ISABELLA
I'm still waiting for a letter.
LIZ
I can't believe Kim would lie to me.
ISABELLA
I got a thank you card.
LIZ
So she's thanked you!
ISABELLA
From Hallmark. To go with the Christmas card, and the belated-birthday
card. I think that the last time I got what could by a generous
definition be called a letter from your Kim was at least three
years ago.
LIZ
The one you sent back, with red-penciled corrections! How can
you expect Kim to write to you, if when she does you punish her?
ISABELLA
Correction is not punishment, Elizabeth. I should hope that you
have the background to help Kim understand that. My father used
to say, "There are two things that it is our duty to pass
on to the next generation: good blood and high standards."
You may scoff at good blood -- - out of fashion when you were
in school, though the geneticists are bringing it round again.
But standards? You must want the child to have standards.
LIZ
Kim has standards.
ISABELLA
She wears eight earrings, and a silver ball in her nose.
LIZ
In that particular instance, her standards are those of her peers.
ISABELLA
Apparently they want to pass for savages. Playing dress-up is
all very well, for a child who looks American. But for a child
with Kim's ancestry---
LIZ
Kim's ancestors were part of a great civilization when ours were
painting themselves blue.
ISABELLA
I hope you'll refrain from that sort of remark at dinner. If you've
come intending to bait me--or your sister-in-law-
LIZ
She's the one baiting. Have you talked to John? Has he explained
why he stopped speaking to me?
ISABELLA
John's said nothing. If you've come to confront him --
LIZ
I've come to see Torrie's baby.
ISABELLA
My grandchild.
LIZ
That's what it said on the invitation.
ISABELLA
I've waited more than thirty years for a grandchild.
LIZ
You have a grandchild. You've had 16 years to practice. I hope
you don't make the same mistakes you made with us and Kim.
ISABELLA
You never made it easy for me!
LIZ
Well, I had a lot to learn, too. About being a mother.
ISABELLA
Implying that I never was one?
LIZ
implying that I want Kim to have a family badly enough to try
to make a fresh start.
ISABELLA
Family! I don't know what it is you mean, when you say that. Divorce,
adoption--. When I think of the hopes I had on your wedding day!
LIZ
My daughter, wife of the doctor! I'm surprised you considered
George good enough.
ISABELLA
By that time, anyone with a haircut was good enough! And if you'd
been a proper wife to George you wouldn't be alone today.
LIZ (laughing)
Really? You see George as Biblical, putting away a barren wife?
ISABELLA
You weren't barren! You were on the pill. Until it was too late
to save your marriage--
LIZ
Late? We had twenty-two years, Mother --- three times the national
average. Considering how screwed up I was when I met George, and
the fact that I married him in a last-ditch panic rebound--
ISABELLA
A man like George Westerveldt!
LIZ
They're all like George Westerveldt! Men of the right class? A
little more bald, or a little less boring, but basically....
TORRIE (voice off, calling)
Ready when you are, Mother Grantham!
LIZ
Duty calls! Or is it pleasure? It must be invigorating, seeing
all your treasures again through fresh and greedy eyes.
ISABELLA
Greedy, is she?
LIZ
What is it you two are up to? Be careful, mother. You aren't the
only schemer, this time.
ISABELLA
I asked you to come early. I intended to be fair.
LIZ
Sorry.
ISABELLA
You'll need time to shower and do your hair, as well. We'll meet
you back here in two hours, for tea.
(ISABELLA exits. LIZ goes to the old desk, unlocks the drawer
with a key she is wearing around her neck. She rummages though
the drawer, removes a diary, ruffles through it quickly and then
re-locks the drawer and exits carrying the diary with her.)
LIGHTS FADE
ACT I SCENE 2
Later that afternoon. A tea cart has been rolled into the conservatory,
with a pitcher, ice, glasses, sherry, cakes, etc.
ISABELLA
In here again. Rita's set something out for us.
TORRIE
I thought you didn't like this room.
ISABELLA
At least it's bright. I used to go South for the sun, stopping
with friends... I often eat here now. Between Rita's incompetence,
and my infirmity, we spare the furniture. Lemonade? Or sherry?
TORRIE
What are you having?
ISABELLA
Sherry. No, lemonade.
TORRIE
Why don't you let me do it? You should be ready for a rest. (ISABELLA
sits down, TORRIE pours lemonade for them both, plumps up a pillow
for ISABELLA's back.) There now, don't we feel better?
ISABELLA
"We"? I don't! You've dragged me through the whole house,
and I'm exhausted.
TORRIE (brandishes list)
Half these pieces here I haven't checked off!
ISABELLA
John's Grandfather's cabinet, with the antique pistols. Put that
down for yourself? Elizabeth hates guns.
TORRIE
What else's left?
ISABELLA
Guest rooms, sewing parlor, attic and servants' quarters. All
closed off.
TORRIE
Rita doesn't sleep in?
ISABELLA
She used to. Until I objected to one of her....uh....
TORRIE
Gentleman callers?
ISABELLA
I didn't like the way he looked at my silver.
TORRIE
Gives me the shivers, to think of you in this huge house all alone.
ISABELLA
If I sell, it will house dozens. With bars on the windows.
TORRIE
I hate that. Greycliffe was a fine old shell, filled with stink
and screaming. The other nurses were almost as bad as the patients-
- stomping their cigarettes into the parquet, thumbtacks and scotch
tape on the walls, the wainscoting. A house like this ought to
belong to somebody who has an inkling. Not Lizzy: she'd trade
this stuff off in a minute.
ISABELLA
Elizabeth isn't mercenary. She gives everything away--
TORRIE
With George, she could afford to. Now, with her child's college--
LIZ (enters)
College? Mapping out the heir's path to glory? Groton, of course,
but Harvard --?
TORRIE
We were talking about yours, actually.
LIZ
Oh? Beginning to like the idea of me as an unwed "elderly
primagravida"?
ISABELLA
Will you never grow out of the desire to shock? Every sordid detail....
LIZ
It's not sordid, Mother. Thanks to technology, no fleshly contact
at all.
ISABELLA
Uncalled for! What devilish satisfaction do you get, denying George
Westerveldt a son, and me a grandchild!
LIZ
Daughters count! Or do they only if they're part of the Wells
collection?
ISABELLA
Bring a bastard into this world, just to make some perverse point!
TORRIE
Not to mention that you're too old to raise one.
LIZ
I'm one year older than John is.
TORRIE
Older men make the best fathers. They have more patience.
LIZ
More than young mothers?
ISABELLA
John is too old! I was too old! I studied abroad, I had my artists,
my friends. By the time I understood what I owed my family, it
was too late. Everyone I knew was past babies, I had to deal with
mine by myself.
LIZ
What do I hear? Are you coming off the gold standard, mother?
ISABELLA
I'm giving you advice, hard-won advice: let it go.
LIZ
Relax. The baby's a fantasy. Kim will be enough for me.
ISABELLA
One never knows how far you'll let spite carry you.
LIZ
Moving from twelve rooms to three is a spite-raising process.
Realizing so much of what I've folded or dusted over the years
is not worth keeping.
ISABELLA
What's not worth keeping's not worth having. Our family motto,
Torrie: "Diuturnum Retinemus."
TORRIE (simultaneously)
"We hold what endures."
LIZ
Yes, I remember.
ISABELLA
I've been thinking, Elizabeth. Do you suppose that Kim will want
the porcelain?
LIZ
Why the porcelain?
ISABELLA
Her oriental background.
LIZ
Since Kim left the exotic East at the of age two months, I don't
see it as much of an influence. She is showing some interest in
carpentry, though. She'll appreciate the furniture.
ISABELLA
Elizabeth, has it ever occurred to you to live here?
LIZ
Not my style, Mother.
ISABELLA
The house, the woods: Get Kim away from the dangers of the city.
LIZ
I cope with the city better than the dangers here.
TORRIE
It is dangerous, Mrs. Grantham. Alone here, in a place built for
--. How many servants?
LIZ
In the 1800's, when this place was like an English manor, and
had a Home Farm? Dozens: a blacksmith, scullions, dairymaids---
TORRIE
I meant when John was little.
ISABELLA
Six or seven, usually, in the house. Two maids, Nanny, the cook,
a handyman and the housekeeper. Others would come in by the day.
When we were traveling--
LIZ
Which was almost all of the time-.
ISABELLA
The staff and Nanny stayed on with the children.
TORRIE
All those servants! John remembers it as lonesome. Marooned with
nobody but his sister--.
LIZ
He was, after Molly left.
ISABELLA
The children weren't allowed to make friends of the servants,
Torrie.
TORRIE
When servants were all there was? When you folks were gone?
ISABELLA
The children had friends, cousins ...
LIZ
Once in a blue moon.
TORRIE
Left to fend for themselves.
ISABELLA
In Paradise! To play "let's pretend", or roam the woods.
There were acres of woods, then. A healthy place to grow up.
LIZ
Unless one's allergic. Or melancholic, like John.
TORRIE
He's not.
LIZ
I know my brother.
TORRIE
John's changed. He's not your ten year old victim any more.
LIZ
We were victims together. Or partners in crime. Either way, we
promised we'd put a stop to it.
ISABELLA
Well, you at least succeeded, Elizabeth. There will be no more
of our ancient female line. The Wells collection will never grace
your descendant's home, and the pieces I passed to you on your
marriage -- over your protests, against your express wishes--
LIZ
I didn't need them.
ISABELLA
You left with George. Our heirlooms! Westerveldt is excellent
stock, good blood. But not our blood.
LIZ
George will take good care of it, though. Acting as a trustee
for Kim--
ISABELLA
Who is not our blood, either. Now that I have a grandson--
LIZ
So that's what you're up to!
ISABELLA
It seems to me that the spirit of the tradition favors John. If
Torrie should have a daughter --
TORRIE
Which I will--
LIZ
Torrie's not your precious blood! You pounded the immutable Wells
/ Grantham ways into John and me until we were sick of them --
literally, in John's case. And now you declare that the code isn't
really graven in stone? John and I really, truly, didn't have
to bow to the whole litany of "thou shalts" and "shalt
nots"?
ISABELLA
What in the world are you trying to say?
LIZ
That our family's just a family, like any other. Not Western Civilization.
Not the White Man's Burden. That you're not, as our mother, the
Fourth Person of the Trinity--
TORRIE
As if Isabella ever said that!
LIZ
Well, she frequently implied it. The good news is that she's not
the Wicked Witch of the West, either.
ISABELLA
Well, goody goody. Is this the formulation of your latest therapist?
LIZ
Oh, most of them say something like that. Point out that you 're
somebody's daughter, too-- like me, or like Torrie, here-- trying
to make a life out of what was passed on to you.
TORRIE
There really is such a thing as wickedness.
LIZ
Yes, there is wickedness. Fortunately, though, it's rarer than
ordinary human muck. Unless you count it wickedness to tell your
children that ordinary muck doesn't happen in "good"
families.
ISABELLA
It does happen. But less frequently.
LIZ
If you pretend it never happened,-- like our cousin Thaddeus shooting
himself with your grandpa's pistol,-- or you push it into a dark
corner, like that desk of Great Grandmother Sarah's, so no one
will see the curse she carved into it.-
ISABELLA
My Grandmother never did that!
LIZ
Oh? Who did?
ISABELLA
It must have been one of the servants.
TORRIE
My guess is Miss Lizzy did it herself.
ISABELLA
That's not possible, the carving's old.
LIZ
I could feel Sarah when I sat at this desk. Her misery, her rage.
Faint, but clear once I noticed it: Like the indentation made
by female elbows, where one of us year after year sat at this
desk and wrote letters and receipts and maybe kept a diary of
her wrongs, real or imagined--
ISABELLA
Few of us have the imagination you have.
TORRIE
Thank the Good Lord.
LIZ
I used to think that all that history would be too much for Kim.
But I've changed my mind.
ISABELLA
Rather late in the day.
LIZ
It's taken me and my patient therapist all this time to dig under
my defenses and find my family. But I'm getting down to it. Ready
to take it all on. My desk, my ancestors, my brother and his prodigy--.
ISABELLA
You mean "progeny".
LIZ
This progeny is a prodigy. Ask his wife.
TORRIE
Ask me what?
LIZ
You have plans for the Wells-Grantham cult objects, Torrie?
TORRIE
Your mother feels that they should go to those who'll care for
them. John and I-
LIZ
Amazing! Who'd 've guessed that the boy who tried to use his great-great-aunt's
embroidery frame for kindling would come to see it as a sacred
trust?
ISABELLA
Used for what?
LIZ
Kindling.
ISABELLA
Are you talking about the fire in the study?
LIZ
Certainly you never bought John's story. Or my idiot alibi.
ISABELLA
John isn't capable of making up such a story.
TORRIE
Or of doing such terrible evil things.
LIZ
Well, you punished us both. A week without dinner, solitary confinement.
ISABELLA
You were punished for carelessness and lying. It never occurred
to me that the fire was deliberate.
LIZ
You didn't know? Well! John and I were better than we thought,
at secrets. Still, failures at the goal of bringing down the House
of Grantham. Neither flame nor sterility --
TORRIE
It was your goal, not John's! You tried to destroy him, too---
LIZ
Until last month I thought our project was a success-. Imagine
my shock when I got Torrie's birth announcement. Twirling my mustache,
"Curses, foiled again!"--
TORRIE
A normal sister would be happy for him. But for you John was only
a tool, a way to spite your parents. You're doing it now--
ISABELLA
When Elizabeth gets like this the only thing to do is ignore her.
LIZ
Well, Torrie's done a great job of ignoring. My letters aren't
answered, I wasn't allowed to see John in the hospital-
TORRIE
That was doctor's orders!
LIZ
Who gave the doctor the idea, Nurse?
TORRIE
You've hurt John enough!
LIZ
Did John say that? I don't believe it. Me, not our parents?
ISABELLA
When Elizabeth was a child she had this fantastic notion that
her father and I were monsters. Sometimes she even convinced John
of this -delusion. Though most of the time my son' was quite normal.
TORRIE
Yes, he is.
ISABELLA
John told you about the time Elizabeth talked him into cutting
his wrists?
TORRIE
When they were ten and eleven.
ISABELLA
The cuts weren't deep, but John's became infected and he was hospitalized.
TORRIE
What would make child want to kill himself?
ISABELLA
It was nothing like that!
LIZ
Wasn't it?
ISABELLA
The two of them were acting out some kind of red Indian ritual.
Native American, Elizabeth calls them now. Identifying with the
oppressed.
TORRIE
Poor little rich girl.
ISABELLA
Savages, in buckskins and beads. Like she brought home for dinner.
LIZ
Only the noble ones.
ISABELLA
One foul-mouthed savage relieved himself on my dining room carpet.
LIZ
He was drunk. Not unheard of, here. Your school chum Natalie Gardener
vomited in the shrubbery.
ISABELLA
The difference between in the shrubbery and on the carpet is the
difference between civilization and savagery.
LIZ
Come now, mother-- some of your musician friends were far from
tame. Franz, for instance. I was only twelve, and I had to be
careful never to let him corner me--
ISABELLA
Not in this house! There was never anything like that kind of
desecration in this house, until you decided to grind our faces
in it! Beatniks, Mau-maus, Hindu hustlers, pimps and drug dealers
from the lowest gutter.
LIZ
Bringing the world to your doorstep, mother.
ISABELLA
You'd flaunt them. Announce you were sleeping with them. I had
nightmares of a chocolate version of the Grantham nose. Isn't
he delicious, mother, isn't this exciting. Take that for bearing
me, you bitch!
LIZ
I see the message got through! Too bad I didn't know: I wouldn't
have had to keep repeating myself.
ISABELLA
I was terrified that you'd marry one.
LIZ
But I didn't. I married a doctor, lawyer, Yankee chief. Scared
to do my act without a net.
ISABELLA
Even after, you brought them, with God knows what bugs and diseases--.
LIZ
Mother! It's been twenty-two years since I had my last picturesque
boyfriend!.
ISABELLA
Those children, slum children. You encourage Kim to play with
them. Not even washing--.
LIZ
How come you never quarantined George? Imagine what he's exposed
to. What does his kind of doctor do all day, but poke around in
privates? Checking for pox, harvesting sperm, prescribing for
crabs! Imagine the microbes, Mother. AIDS, even!
ISABELLA
That's disgusting!
LIZ
It is, once you think about it. But still, I did better in the
spouse department than brother John.
TORRIE
How dare you!
LIZ
Sorry. Present company excepted, Mrs. Grantham. I was referring
to the crazy slut who was number one.
TORRIE
Was Cynthia crazy when John married her? Or did she get that way
after she found out she was barren? Women who can't fulfill themselves
may react by abusing their bodies--
LIZ
Cynthia wasn't barren. George had to help her, before it was legal.
ISABELLA
Help her why?
LIZ
Because they didn't want offspring, mother. I used to wonder if
John married Cynthia mainly because he was sure she wouldn't want
kids.
TORRIE
Is that what you did, too?
LIZ
Abortion? I had two, before George. But George I convinced that
I meant what I said: and bless him, he fixed me so that I'd never
have to worry.
ISABELLA
You killed my grandchildren? Both of you?
LIZ
Cynthia's weren't yours. I mean they weren't John's.
TORRIE
How would you know?
LIZ
George knew. He was their doctor. And of course George told his
wife, we were a close family. That's also how I was sure that
John also was serious about our childhood pact, and meant to keep
it. Neither of us would ever have children, never add to the curs-ed
Grantham line--
TORRIE
John never did such an evil thing! Maybe you did...
LIZ
George agreed with us. Not that George saw the Granthams as tainted
blood, as we did. George just thought both of us were too fragile
to risk parenthood.
TORRIE
He married you, thinking that?!
LIZ
Funny thing. George liked me.
TORRIE
He's as sick as you are.
LIZ
Yes, well, if he is it doesn't show. So. After some years, George
still liked me; and he also agreed that I'd worked my way out
of some of my problems. So we decided to adopt Kim. Then another
dozen years passed, and George found somebody young he liked even
better.
ISABELLA
Who is giving him a child.
LIZ
Is she?
TORRIE
You don't know?
LIZ
I know she was pregnant when he divorced me. That doesn't mean
it's George's.
ISABELLA
You really ARE insane.
LIZ
From med school on, George donated sperm every chance he got.
He took a certain satisfaction in the thought that his excellent
Westerveldt genes were marching by battalions into the next generation,
but he didn't want to lead them himself--
ISABELLA
It's as if you speak a different language. The words are familiar,
but--
LIZ
George was so detached and scientific, I worried that he wouldn't
love Kim.
ISABELLA
God in heaven--
LIZ
But he did. He does. Of course, I worried even more that I wouldn't
love her, that my -- problems -- had stifled the instinct.
TORRIE
The instinct is to love your own. Not just any child, not a child
of a different color--
LIZ
But Kim turned out to be easy to love. John will find it easy
to love your son, too, Torrie. Instinct's not as exclusive as
the social register.
ISABELLA
The part of the country Torrie comes from has old Anglo-Saxon
stock. Appalachia never had prosperity to tempt immigrants, so
the people there are as-- --
LIZ
Inbred as Yankees? Up to the Grantham standard? The name's bad
enough: John Wells Grantham III. A lot to lay on an innocent kid,
even without the Good Blood nonsense. Suppose someday John-John
checks his DNA, and finds out he's not "good"?
ISABELLA
I have no idea what you mean.
LIZ
Torrie does.
TORRIE
I know you're tear-ass jealous!
LIZ
You're right. Claws out to defend my nestling, one cuckoo's Mom
to another. I don't like myself like this, I don't like the way
it feels.
TORRIE
Everybody says Lizzy's not interested in money. She's practically
a Socialist. But here she is, all greedy and hateful.
LIZ
It's not as if Kim's destitute. But I'm so angry--
TORRIE
There's two possibilities. Either you're jealous in a really sick
way, like it's a sex thing; or you want to hurt your mother so
bad that you don't care what damage you do. Either way, it's not
sisterly affection that's brought this whole thing up.
ISABELLA
What? What thing?
LIZ
John's thing, mother. You aren't that dense. Brother John's, whose
thing supposedly fathered this miracle child, twenty years after
a very complete and final vasectomy.
TORRIE
The operation's reversible.
LIZ
For some. A percentage. But I'll take any odds that John's isn't
among them. My brother and I swore that we'd be the last of the
clan, word of a Grantham; and for thirty-some years he's kept
that oath.
ISABELLA
I don't believe this.
LIZ
George checked. Torrie was the one who went to the clinic. Not
John.
TORRIE
Lizzy's just being hateful. The vasectomy was Cynthia's idea .
Cynthia wanted threesomes, she wanted orgies. She thought John
would be more attractive to those perverts if he had a vasectomy
--
ISABELLA
I can't listen to this. (JOHN, in golfing gear, comes to the
french doors and stops, listening silently)
TORRIE
That poor man was so demoralized, so used to being abused, he
did whatever Cynthia said --.
ISABELLA
So whose is this baby?
TORRIE
Mine! And John's!
ISABELLA
John is the father?
LIZ
The sperm bank is. It has to be.
TORRIE
When I went to the clinic--
ISABELLA
You mean a test tube?
LIZ
A donor. Mr. A. Nonomous. Or Dr. A. Nonomous, MD., healthy , high
IQ, blue eyed Northern European type Rh positive. What any American
mother would want. Genes like George's. In fact, they might be
George's, he's still donating. It's his little joke--everyone
can see that yellow Kim's not his, but they'd never guess the
ones that are. Every baby we pass on the street we try to sneak
a peek at its earlobes. Earlobes like John-john's--
TORRIE (throws her lemonade at LIZ)
Stop that!
LIZ (positioning lemon slice on forehead, laughing)
Look, Mother! Just my style! (LIZ notices JOHN at door)
ISABELLA
You had it all worked out, didn't you, young woman? Marry my poor
weak son, and then trick me into passing this house to a bastard,
to the offspring of a liar and a nobody!
TORRIE
Don't you call me names. I saved your son's life.
LIZ
She's right, mother. Sell all this, and give the money to John.
ISABELLA
While this woman's in control of him?
LIZ
Then give it to a museum, mother, all of it. The Isabella Wells
Grantham Memorial Closet; roped off so no one can put their hands
on it. I'm serious, mother. Forget about controlling from the
grave.
ISABELLA
All these lies. I don't know what to believe.
LIZ (indicates JOHN)
Why don't you ask John?
TORRIE (still doesn't see him)
Don't you dare! Oh, you're two of a kind, you are. I was so sure
it was all Lizzy, Lizzy and that creepy gardener's boy. But you
don't give a shit for John, either of you. All you care about
is having your own way, and if John can't cope with that, well
-- too bad. No wonder he wanted to die.
JOHN
I didn't really want to die, Torrie. I just couldn't see any other
way out.
ISABELLA
What am I going to do? I've announced this, I've invited friends,
they think that this is my grandson.
TORRIE
Who says he's not?
LIZ
It's nobody's business, Mother. A family by choice is as much
or as little a family as one by blood.
ISABELLA
It's a matter of honor.
TORRIE (embracing JOHN, speaking to the women)
You don't deserve him, this lovely man. Do you want a family,
or don't you? We can march out to the car and you'll never see
us again.
LIZ
Might be the best thing you could do, John.
(Faintly, in another part of the house, the baby can be heard
crying)
JOHN (to TORRIE)
Is that what you want?
LIZ
I'm in a bit of financial bind myself, John. But whatever I can
scrape together you're welcome to--
JOHN
We'll be all right. I'll go pack.
TORRIE
The baby's crying. Isn't Rita with him?
ISABELLA
Don't go, John. Not yet.
LIZ
If we stay, let's at least tell the truth. Come to terms, or break
off entirely.
JOHN (hugs LIZ, awkwardly)
I not exactly prepared for a full scale Grantham crisis. I haven't
even said "hello", yet. You look great, Liz. Divorce
agrees with you.
LIZ
You too, brother John. Your marriage, I mean. Or is it parenting?
TORRIE
I'm going to get the baby. Mrs. Grantham--?
ISABELLA
Yes, stay. For, please. But leave me alone, all of you. I'm exhausted,
I'm going to my room to lie down. I need to think. I need quiet.
I have a duty, but I'm too upset to see what it is-- (exits)
LIZ
John--
TORRIE
John, come with me. Baby and I need you. (TORRIE pulls John
out the door. JOHN smiles ruefully at LIZ and gives a little wave
as he goes)
END OF ACT I
Go to Act Two of Good Blood and High Standards
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